Flammable and Inflammable mean the same thing
by babyturtles
Summary: You may have read this elsewhere I promise it's fine...anyway...AkuRoku when they stop burning each other belongings and realise that in this AU highschool situation this is a pretty good pairing that they will go along with.
1. Chapter 1

"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU AXEL." Roxas paced back and forth through the kitchen, while Axel sat at the table, helpless against this interrogation.  
"But Roxas! I only-" Roxas raised his hand to silence Axel. Sora then bounded into the kitchen humming to himself, which if you know Sora is not unusual. He has a dangerously annoying happy disposition.  
"Wow, what did he do?" asked Sora, taking an ice cream out of the freezer.

"Psst, Sora, could you hand me a sea salt one?" Roxas spun round violently and slammed his hands on the table bad cop style. He looked like Napoleon: short, angry and powerful (albeit not French).  
"You will give him no such thing! Because he," Roxas near shouted, pointing dramatically at Axel in the process, "He not only burned my chemistry book to cinders last week-"  
"It was an accident!" Axel pleaded.  
"Sorry Ax, you ate the last sea salt two days ago." Sora leant against the freezer, sucking on an ice lolly. He watched them intently, it was clear Roxas was overreacting but Axel enjoyed the drama, and he would beg and plead forgiveness till Roxas gave in. It wasn't that Sora enjoyed arguments; in fact he hated them. However, Roxas and Axel arguing was normal. Everyone became suspicious when they got on for more than 3 hours.  
"And," continued Roxas, "and you finished off the last bar of my FAVOURITE ice cream, but you...I can't even believe it. Tell him, Axel."  
Axel looked nervously at Roxas who had sunk limply into the chair opposite, his head hitting the table with a soft thunk. Axel decided it was safe to continue.  
"Well, you know the school dance in coming up, right?"  
"Of course I do!" said Sora, obviously excited. "Kairi's on the planning committee. She keeps asking me red balloons or blue balloons, and I think-"  
"ANYWAY, seeing as it's in a week and Roxy here doesn't have a date I took the liberty of asking a few girls for him. I sent letters to Kairi, Olette, Selphie, and Namine even though she said she's already got a date, which I find hard to believe. But, you know, I thought chances are ONE of em's gonna say yes. I mean Roxas isn't THAT bad..."  
"Not THAT bad..." Roxas said to the table feebly. Sora pulled the lolly out of his mouth with a pop.  
"I don't know why you can't believe it Roxas; it sounds like something Axel would do."  
Axel nodded fervently. "Because I'm caring! I was doing you a favour Roxas – it's better than not having a date, right?"  
"I could have gotten a date myself!"  
"Oh really. As if you would get up the guts to ask anyone."  
"Shut up! You never have a date!"  
"That's cause I..." Axel stared at the wall.  
"...Cause no girl in their right mind would go with you! You're a fire hazard." Roxas laughed.  
"Sure." Axel smiled, seemingly forgiven. "No girl."

Sora, after finishing his ice lolly, was halfway upstairs, jumping them two at a time. He breezed into his bedroom, where Riku was on the end of the bed playing some console game. Sora jumped backwards onto his bed, landing on his bed. Perhaps he though he looked like a high jumper. He would be wrong.  
Sora liked his room: it was blue, like the sea. Or the sky. Both, he decided.  
"So what were they arguing about?" Riku asked, still staring at the screen.  
"Oh, Axel asked some girls to the school dance for Roxas. It hurt his masculinity."  
Riku laughed. "Typical. And he burnt his chemistry book last week."  
"But that was an accident!" Sora said, trying to keeps thing fair.  
"An accident? Really? Then why had Axel drenched it with ethanol before he held it over the Bunsen burner?"  
"I thought ethanol was inflammable though?"  
Riku laughed again. Only Sora could make him laugh, and usually it wasn't on purpose.  
"It is inflammable Sora. Which happens to mean the same thing as flammable: it catches on fire very easily."  
"Oh."  
Riku paused the game and lay back on the bed beside Sora. All the beds in Sora's house were double beds, which Riku always found slightly odd. When they were younger it had made for comfortable sleepovers.  
"Speaking of the dance, are you going with Kairi?"  
Sora turned his head to look at Riku, who was staring resolutely at the ceiling.  
"Huh? She hasn't asked me..."  
"You're the guy Sora, you should ask her."  
"Why would I?" Riku looked at him in surprise. Sora's eyes were completely genuine. "I mean, I thought," Sora turned away this time. "We would go together, since you usually come to my house first anyway and we're gonna sit and talk to each other probably.  
Unless you have a date already! You didn't tell me, but I guess I didn't ask, so..."  
"Go together?"  
"Yeah. As friends. We don't have to, I mean, you could bring your date I don't mind."  
"Stop babbling, I don't have a date. But sure, together." Riku smiled and rolled the word around his mouth. He liked the way it sounded.

Roxas found Namine the next day at school. They hadn't hung around together much before they met at their cousins wedding, Roxas's cousin marrying Namine's cousin. They weren't sure if that made them relatives but they got on well anyway.  
"Hey Namine." Roxas said as she shut her locker door. "I heard you got a date for the school dance."  
"Why wouldn't I have a date?" Namine was definitely pretty enough to have a date, but she was shy as anything. "You're just jealous."  
"Jealous! Pshh. I have a date."  
"Really? Cause I heard Axel asked out loads of girls for you." Namine grinned as Roxas hid his head in his hands.  
"Right...I forgot you were one of the girls he asked. But who are you going with?"  
"Not telling."  
"Aw come on. I won't tell anyone."  
"Seriously not telling! You'll find out on Saturday anyway." Namine walked to her next class, turning backwards to wave goodbye. "AND I'M SURE OLETTE WOULD LIKE TO GO WITH YOU!"  
She cackled and swung her long blonde plait over her shoulder. Roxas slid to the floor, red in the face, as the whole of the crowded hallway turned to see who she was shouting at.

Authors babble: I love tapirs. It's Christmas Eve and I forgot to put any Christmas element into this story! Let's make it a Christmas dance... anyway, do you like it?


	2. Chapter 2

After the incident with Namine in the hallway, Roxas grumbled and stumbled off to Biology, which he fully regretted choosing as a subject. They tended to do dissections either directly before or directly after lunch, which Roxas suspected was anything but luck. It's not as if Roxas's teachers had any reason to like him, for all they knew his books kept mysteriously disappearing: thanks to Axel. Roxas pushed his way through the corridor, almost hitting a small girl in the face as he swung his khaki book bag over his shoulder. He was early, for once. He contemplated his dismal surroundings; the dusty pus coloured walls and speckled grey tiled floor. A shrill black bell sat by the ceiling, threatening to ring any minute.  
"BOO!" Axel appeared behind him, pinching him in both sides. If you've ever had this done to you you will know that it sends a taser-like shock throughout your whole body, causing Roxas to emit a sound similar to "Aauueghh!"  
"Oh man," Axel collapsed with laughter, "That's the FIFTH time..."  
Roxas responded by pinching Axel in the sides. "Sorry Roxas, doesn't work on me." Axel grinned.  
"No," said Roxas, "But I bet tickling does."  
"You...you wouldn't." Axel held up his arms as a pathetic shield. Everyone knows it is nigh impossible to prevent someone from tickling you.  
"Oh, wouldn't I?" Roxas grinned and raised his fist and formed his fingers into a claw (the dreaded claw). Soon it was only those in Russia and East China that couldn't hear Axel screaming with high pitched... well, I hope it was laughter.

Namine sat in the common room. It was relatively quiet, as it always was on Monday afternoons. Most people had classes all day Monday, but she wasn't one of those people. She sat on a chair with a high back and arms, in the corner. Everyone else in the room was reading, or listening to music: all chat was at a dull relaxing murmur. Namine sat and stared at the little black box in her hands.  
"2 new messages..." She turned it over in her hands, shook it, and pressed a few of the buttons on the side. It did nothing. _This is too modern for me!_ She thought. Namine had never completely got to grips with phones, they changed every five minutes and she simply couldn't keep up. Namine preferred just talking to people face to face, so often it was much simpler.  
Riku entered the room, and everyone turned look up and stare before going back to what they were doing. It was a habit that still unnerved Riku, though he couldn't help doing it himself whenever he was in there. It was hard to find a place to sit while people were busy staring at you. But he looked to the corner where Namine usually sat, and sure enough she was there. He strolled over and fell into a chair next to her.  
"You sort it out," she said, holding the phone in front of Riku's face.  
"O...kay?" he took the phone and fiddled with the screen. "What do you want me to do?"  
Namine picked out a thin book from her bag and opened it. "Just make it stop complaining at me."  
"You have 2 unread messages, that's probably the problem. Why don't you just read them?"  
"As if I know how to do that," she said, turning a page.  
"I keep telling you, you just press the home button and- I'm sure it came with instructions!"  
"Sort it out." Namine smiled, knowing he would. Riku always did things for her, sorted out her phone, opened tight jars, and bought her coffee occasionally. She liked this; she thought he would make a diligent boyfriend.  
"Okay, the first one is from Kairi. She says red balloons or blue balloons, kiss kiss."  
"Oh delete it, she keeps asking me that, and I TOLD her-"  
"Oh, the next ones from me." Riku said. Namine leant over the arm of the chair to look.  
"Need to talk..." she read slowly. "Oh? What about?"  
Riku winced, and ran his fingers through his long hair.  
"Look, Namine, it's about the Christmas ball thing."  
"Yeah? We're still going together, aren't we?" Namine had expected this, but put on her puppy-dog wide eyes anyway. It was fun to see Riku squirm.  
"I...I'm really sorry. I sort of promised Sora we could go together. I told him I wasn't going with anyone." Namine stayed silent, and Riku looked more and more uncomfortable. Eventually she laughed.  
"Don't worry, it's cool. I thought this might happen, so I have a backup date." Riku was a little relieved, and also a bit insulted.  
"Who, who?"  
"Oh, no-one."  
"Oh Namine pleeease tell me..." He leant over the arm of her chair and shut her book to get her attention.  
"Okay, on one condition. Actually, two conditions. One is that you don't tell anyone else,"  
Riku nodded. "I won't!"  
"And the second is that as you're going with Sora, you must tell him how you feel. At the dance. BY MIDNIGHT." She grinned, satisfied at the horror on Riku's face.  
He sat, stunned. Namine knew how he felt about Sora more than he did. He hadn't told anyone else, though Roxas always narrowed his eyes at Riku every time he went into Sora's bedroom. Namine always wanted the best for him, she wasn't a stirrer. Maybe this would be a good thing...  
"Deal. Now who is it?"  
Namine smiled. "Marluxia."  
"WHAT?" he yelled. "Namine, that guy has PINK HAIR! Voluntarily!"  
"You have grey hair," she pointed out.  
"SILVER. And pink hair is so attention seeking, silver makes me look..."  
"Old?"  
"No."  
"Like a witch?"  
"No! Anyway, Sora likes it."  
"Of course he does," she smirked.

"Olette, you want some of my sandwich?"  
"Hey Olette, I have chocolate chip cookies."  
Pence and Hayner narrowed their eyes at each other and growled like dogs. Olette sat in-between them and sighed.  
"Guys, why do we have to do this every year?"  
"Because there's a school dance every year," said Hayner, stuffing a sandwich into his mouth. Olette sighed again and tucked a strand of her wavy brown hair behind her ear. "And don't you try what you did last year!"  
"What? It worked out fine for both of you!"  
"Me for the first three dances and Hayner for the last three?"  
"Hey," they all looked up as Roxas dropped his lunchbox on the table. "You guys should learn to share." He grinned.  
"He's right," Olette said. "I am NOT going to choose between you." Both boys either side of her sank lower in their chairs.  
"But then how will you ask who to go with?" Pence asked tentatively.  
"Roxas!" Roxas, who had been drifting away in his thoughts of when he would next see Axel, and whether there was an opportunity to sneak up behind him and get revenge for the taser earlier...he startled, and looked wide eyed from Hayner, to Pence, to Olette, all three of whom were staring right at him.  
"You'll go with me, won't you Roxas?" she smiled sweetly.  
"I –uh, um, what? Yeah, yeah..." He distractedly answered, rather than admit he hadn't been listening and face the wrath of Olette. The wrath of Olette was something some claimed was an urban myth...but not Roxas, who had faced it head on in the second grade. He said her drawing of a dog looked like a horse and she gave him the Chinese burn to end all Chinese burns. Roxas unconsciously touched his arm and opened his lunchbox. Pence and Hayner stared at each other in mutual disbelief and horror. What had Olette just done? What does this mean? What are those things Roxas is eating, and can I have some?  
"Hey, what are you eating?" Olette folded her arms, which signified that the conversation had ended and they must all bow down to her as master.  
"Billions. Do you want some?" He picked up a fingerful of tiny pink balls and put them absent mindedly in the direction of his mouth.  
"Those are just sugar, aren't they? I keep telling you, you can't live off that stuff. You can't carry on eating that like cereal." Roxas carried on eating it like cereal. A flurry of red rushed past the window that he was conveniently gazing out of, and he got to his feet automatically.  
"Guys, I'll see you later. Maybe. I don't know. Gotta go."  
"Wow, what's his problem?" Pence said to no-one in particular.  
"You can't go with him!" Hayner moaned, "Then who will I go with?"  
"Oh, I'm sure you'll find someone..." Olette sighed like a mother and took a bite out of one of Pence's chocolate chip cookies.

Author's notes: Sorry to keep you waiting! Since I stopped doing English at school I'm rusty with speech marks vs. punctuation... D: Help? (Also last line, not a euphemism.)


End file.
